In producing brick, it is customary to cut brick slugs into individual bricks and then through a setting operation to stack the bricks on a kiln car for curing and drying. A setter assembly, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,589,495 is typically used to transfer bricks to a kiln car that transfers the brick through curing and drying kilns. For efficiency and effective curing and drying, the setter assembly stacks the bricks in a spreaded stack pattern in order that drying air can reach the bricks within the stack, especially the bricks disposed within the interior and central area of the stack, through the spaces between respective bricks resulting from the spreaded stack pattern. With the spreaded stack pattern and the fact that alternating pairs of courses may be crossed to tie the stack, certain edge portions of the brick are exposed while other edge portions of the same edge may not be exposed. This often results in streaked and nonuniform coloration of such edges that are partly exposed and partly unexposed.
To correct this problem, every other course of the stack can be inverted such that the bricks comprising a pair of courses can be stacked in vertical alignment face to face. In such a case, the face of each brick lies adjacent and in abutting relationship with the face of another brick in an adjacent course, consequently all of the faces are covered so as to yield a uniform color for the entire face of all of the bricks.
Inverting has been known in the brick industry heretofore. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,589,495, an inverter is utilized therein prior to the hacking operation to stack two slugs, one on top of another in face to face relationship. Inverting and stacking slugs prior to cutting is not conducive to a high and efficient brick producing operation, and consequently such is not deemed to be a desirable brick producing method. This is because the essential problem is that it is difficult to cut and stack slugs sufficiently fast enough to carry out an efficient and high brick production operation.
Moreover, in certain cases, it is desired to texturize the face of the bricks, and texturizing for best results should only be done after cutting. Thus, where texturizing is desired, there is a need for double course stacking subsequent to cutting with the provision that every other course be inverted to allow double course face to face stacking on the kiln cars to assure uniform face coloration.